This invention relates to a container construction comprising a container having a sealed cover which can be manually removed from said container when the cover is severed from the container and wherein movement of a severed cover is limited by the can wall construction. More particularly, this invention comprises a container construction for a liquid having a cover which includes strip means which promotes ease of manual removal of the cover from the container when the cover is severed from the container and which prevents a severed cover from sinking into the contents of the container.
Prior to the present invention, containers such as metallic or plastic containers have been provided with a cover which can be opened by hand. These containers included the construction having a "pop-top" opener handle which is formed integrally with the cover and can be lifted by hand to form an opening in the cover which is defined by a previously molded indentation in the cover. These containers have been designed either to form a centrally located opening in the cover such as is common in a beverage container or can be found to extend about the cover periphery to remove the cover, as is common in processed foods such as cheese products. The opener handles which form a central opening are not useful when the container contains a liquid food product since a portion of the outside surface of the opened handle extends into the liquid and can contaminate the liquid. The handle openings which permit removal of the entire cover are expensive.
Even with containers having a top with a strip as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,027,968 can be of limited use since the user may be too slow in grasping a free end of a severed strip before a severed cover sinks into a liquid housed within a container.
It has also been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,637,465 to provide a handle which can be bent away from a can top so that the can top can be subsequently lifted away from the can after the top has been cut. This handle means is undesirable since force is required to bend it away from the can which force would force the contents onto the top after it is cut. In addition, it is expensive to produce.
It would be desirable to provide a container construction which includes a cover which can be easily manually removed from the container when the cover is severed and wherein movement of a severed cover is limited without interfering with the container's contents such as undesirably would be the case when the cover sinks into the container housing a liquid products such as a soup.